Takeaways from World Cup site selections; Manfred talks media and progress in Oakland; and LIV Golf players face mostly friendly gallery
Abe Madkour:
Well, let's start the Buzzcast with congratulations to the Golden State Warriors who left Little Dow in beating the Boston Celtics in game six last night in Boston for the Warriors to clinch its fourth NBA title in the past eight years. Well done to ownership led by Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, team executives, Bob Myers and Brandon Schneider. Wow, the Warriors remain one of the marquee franchises in all of sports. This is your morning Buzzcast for Friday June 17th. Good morning. I'm a Abe Madkour, hope everybody's ready for the weekend.
The biggest takeaway from FIFA's announcement of the 16 North American cities that will host matches for the 2026 World Cup was that the US got 11, not 10 venues, and that Edmonton and the combined bid of Washington/Baltimore were left out. As you know, cities have been desperately politicking to be part of The World Cup. These matches will be huge draws in their respective markets. So the cities officially hosted to select matches in the US were mostly as expected, New York, New Jersey, at MetLife, LA and SoFi Stadium, Dallas at AT&T Stadium, Miami at Hard Rock and Atlanta, with Mercedes-Benz. Those were the favorites in my mind, those venues were locks, but then you had a tier that now includes Levi Stadium at San Francisco, Lumen Field in Seattle, Houston with NRG stadium, Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. You got Arrowhead in Kansas City and Gillette in Boston. Some wondered if Gillette would make the final cut, but Robert Kraft's relationships should never be overlooked. And so Boston and Gillette Stadium do make the final cut.
The cities officially selected to host matches in Mexico and Canada are Guadalajara, Monterey, Mexico City, Toronto and Vancouver. So who was left out? Well, like I said, the biggest surprise, Baltimore Washington. They had a joint bid and to not have the nation's capital be a World Cup host will certainly be noticed and talked about. In addition, the host of the '94 World Cup final, The Rose Bowl was not chosen and of course, SoFi stadium got the nod in Los Angeles. Others left out, Orlando, Cincinnati, Nashville, Denver and Edmonton. And that was the key, to allow another US market to get a game, was the fact that FIFA only selected two Canadian markets, Edmonton on the outside looking in.
So there were no indications which city would host the opening match or the finals of the '26 tournament. The next decision on which stadiums will host those matches and when, and how many games, will be made sometime, next year in 2023, but many cities breathing a sigh of relief that they will host matches for the '26 World Cup.
Abe Madkour:
Let's move on to baseball because major league baseball's Rob Manfred met the media after this week's owner's meetings and had a few interesting nuggets to share. He said a great deal of time at the meetings was spent on talking about media distribution of games and that the league continues to target a direct-to-consumer offering in the future. Talking about two specific teams, he said the Rays and the A's need to reach new ballpark deals soon. And he left open the possibility of considering relocation if deals are not done.
He especially cited urgency in Tampa, around the Rays, as the team's lease at Tropicana Field expires after the 2027 season. Speaking about the A's, he cited significant activity in Oakland, and that surprised me. He said, "The process in Oakland is moving forward, but a caution, that a deal-making process and that politics in California can get complicated." He said, "The A's are smart to pursue Las Vegas and that baseball is bullish on Las Vegas as a market." So Rob Manfred, giving another clear indication that the Rays and A's could be relocation targets.
MLB also approved the sale of a minority stake in the Cleveland Guardians to David Blitzer. David Blitzer, of course, co-owner of many teams, including the 76ers and the Devils. Now David Blitzer will have the right to increase his state to a controlling interest from current owner Paul Dolan in a few years. Remember the Dolan family has owned the Guardians since 2000. Here's one other final interesting nugget from baseball's owners meeting. Guess who was a guest speaker on Wednesday? Well, it turned out to be former president George W. Bush, who of course, was the former owner of the Texas Rangers. He was the guest speaker speaking to baseball owners on Wednesday. So a number of interesting takeaways from baseball's owners meetings this week.
Let's shift to some big news around the Super Bowl, as Anheuser Busch has given up its status as the super Bowl's only alcohol advertiser. They have had that right for more than 30 years. Yes, since 1989 Anheuser Busch has been the only alcohol brand running ads during the Super Bowl. But Anheuser Busch said it will not renew its exclusivity deal for Super Bowl 57. That game will be on Fox on February 12th of next year. Now the NFL does not plan to sign a similar exclusive deal with another alcohol brand, and so while Anheuser Bush still plans to run ads in the Super Bowl, now some of its competitors can be part of the action, which will provide a new advertising mix for the networks. Anheuser Busch said its decision will allow it to spend its marketing dollars throughout the year, both during the football season and the summer months when consumers are obviously more apt to buy beer and its beverages, so some interesting news from Anheuser Busch around the Super Bowl.
Let's shift to golf because one thing many sources have asked me is, "How would the players who have committed to play Live Golf, be received during other tournaments? Would they be vilified, booed, harassed for joining Live Golf? As I was watching Golf Channel's coverage of the US open a bit last night, the commentators were talking about everybody taking a side. One side was either PGA Tour, one side was either Live Golf and it was a battle of good versus evil. Well, many people I spoke with were never sure that mentality would follow to the gallery, and the early results from Boston seemed to support that. Press reports out of the US open indicate that the Live Golf players were widely well received during Thursday's first round. Players like Dustin Johnson were greeted with applause, and more importantly, Phil Mickelson was met with wide applause and long lines of greeters and autograph seekers, so it's something we're going to keep an eye on, but for now, it doesn't seem like that good versus evil mentality that maybe permeating other parts of the golf industry are impacting golf fans. That is for now. We'll continue to keep an eye on that.
Finally, here's a name in sports business you may want to keep an eye on. Mike Mahan. Who is he? Well, he has been hired by Fanatics to be CEO of Fanatics Collectables, and that is a new role that oversees Topps, Candy Digital and zerocool. Now he'll report directly to Michael Ruben of Fanatics and this is a big move, because it represents the first time all of Fanatics collectible business will report to one person, and remember, Fanatics is very bullish about building out its collectible business. And we know that Fanatics has major goals in collectibles and Mahan will be tasked with growing the number of collectors, as well as doing right steels with properties, players and brands around the world.
Fanatics launched its trading card business just last year and it's on track to hit a billion dollars in revenue this year alone. So they see some real growth in that business and Mahan will lead it. He joins Fanatics from Dick Clark Productions, where he was CEO. So a big hire by Michael Rubin at Fanatics. So that is your morning Buzzcast for Friday June 17th. You made it to another week. Hope you have a great weekend. I'm Abe Madkour, until I speak to you again, stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you on Monday.